This month’s episode of A Beginner's Guide to the Grateful Dead Live series features Jeff Mauro. The Chicago-based chef aka The Sandwich King has starred on Food Network series The Kitchen and Worst Cooks In America. As he explains, “I'm a chef by trade, but in my heart, I'm a lifelong Deadhead. And this is my Beginner's Guide to the Grateful Dead Live.”
The goal of the series, which launched back in February, features fans of the band who “offer five live takes that they would recommend for new fans and the reasons why. Journey along through many different eras, many years, and soon you'll find you've found the moments that make you dance, make you cry, make you smile, smile, smile."
To read all five of his five picks, click here. We’ll offer a teaser with his thought on “The Music Never Stopped” (Live at Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI 2/3/78):
All right. So this next one, dare I say, ladies and gentlemen, I'm making a claim here and a definitive statement. This is by far my most listened to Grateful Dead live track of all time. And it's for all the right reasons. This is from Dick's Picks, Vol. 18 from the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin, 2/3/78. That was the year I was born, by the way. And this is “The Music Never Stopped.” It's just so bouncy and chewy and lighthearted. It almost lifts your earlobes, right? Right from your ears. And you just kind of float away.
And then Jerry starts on his, I believe it's the second solo. He's playing fast. Fast and accurate, right? You could tell he was in the zone. And then he starts up really high on the guitar neck and he's playing fast again with an overdrive. He's playing this lick: bing, bing, bing. Just when you think he's going to start like finger-tapping a solo, which Jerry really never did—it wasn't Yngwie Malmsteen finger-tapping a solo, right? The band, they just kind of all hit the groove instantly at the same time. Whether you're a seasoned Dead listener or you're listening to literally this Beginner's Guide to the Grateful Dead for the first time trying to find inspiration of where to start. I would start at this moment, because it shows you the magic of that plane lifting up. And just when you think it might crash or might just go into the stratosphere, it just hits the altitude back again and you're cruising along. And I defy you to listen to this and not bop your head and not just want to start dancing to the rhythm of the beat, which with Phil just fills there right in the pocket.
And of course, Bobby, the greatest, the greatest rhythm. I don't even call him a rhythm guitarist. He's a secondary lead who plays wildly inventive licks that you don't notice until they're isolated or until you really slap on a pair of headphones and pay attention. And they're just all humming. And the boys in the back are just keeping time perfectly. And it all grooves. There's no hesitation from the crescendo of the jam. To the kind of C-chain shift back into the groove, which is immense on “The Music Never Stopped,” right? It's the most danceable tune from the beginning when you just get addicted to Jerry's little licks in the beginning that are just, as a guitarist, so impossible to emulate. So impossible. Like I've learned “China Cat,” fairly well. You know, Terrapin. I can learn those licks, For some reason, those beginning little fills that Jerry does in “The Music Never Stopped” elude me. No matter how much I practice for 30-something years of playing guitar, I cannot get that groove in there. And that's the magic of Jerry in the Dead, because I know what the missing piece is, other than a lack of skill on my part. And that is I don't have Bob. I don't have Phil. I don't have them playing up front with me and I don't have the magic of the band. So this shows that more than any tune, I believe.
Again, it is my favorite Grateful Dead live track, and probably one of my most favorite moments. And I'm a man who's addicted to crescendos. And in a band that is the masters of crescendo, this is the crescendo of all the crescendos, which to me and you is just, it's a meta crescendo, all right? That's what's going to go on my tombstone too. Here, Jeffrey never stopped in the human embodiment of a meta crescendo. But because of this song, you know, I could be in the crappiest mood, have the most stressful day. And I put this on, whether on my turntable at home or in my little iPod things, or even in my car. It is even when I'm working out and I need that last rep, you know, this takes me there every time. And it just really encompasses everything great about this American band that keeps you coming back for more and keeps you searching for more of these crescendos. And that right there, the catalog is nearly endless. Nobody knows everything, you know. Even AI won't be able to know everything about this band. Just when you think you've heard it all, there's a little something to uncover and dig out and take a bite of. So that's it. “The Music Never Stopped.” I'll never stop. Listening to this music!
